11 Plus Exams Forum

My son will be choosing GCSEs in Feb . I need some advice about the science GCSE .

The courses offered are:
a) GCSE Science plus GCSE Additional Science which will lead to the award of two
GCSEs.
b) A separate Sciences course which will lead to the award of GCSEs in Biology,
Chemistry and Physics.
Tiffin quote in booklet
Our view is that the Science plus Additional Science course represents the most
appropriate choice for the majority of pupils. As delivered at Tiffin School it offers a solid
and rigorous grounding in Science whilst still allowing pupils to follow a broad and
balanced curriculum.

My son is not sure what he wants to do at Uni ,he is good at Science and but can also write well and enjoys History.If he takes 3 sciences he can only choose 2 GSCE options rather than three.
What is better 3 individual sciences or what seems a diluted science GSCE. Any parents whose children who have done 2 GSCE option in Science what are your views?

It is so easy if children have good idea what they want to do for A level?My son is a bit a drifter,enjoys art ,can be good at languages if he applies himself but at the moment he is a bit of a hormonal caveman !Any advice most welcome.

there has been a fair bit of discussion over this (as you can imagine) - might be worth having a look at some of the threads in this section of the forum.

FWIW my DS school started with ALL doing the 3 and only those who weren't keeping up ending up stopping after the second "instalment" and just did the dual award.

Thanks I will have a look but the feeling i am getting is triple is better than double if your child is able .

At my daughter's school (a comp) the top two sets do all three sciences the other two/three sets do the dual award. Both groups are timetabled the same amount of time the top sets just cover the goround more quickly to do three sciences.

P's Mum

I think that is probably the case.

At DS's school several of them were on A* for the double after the second lot of exams (in Jan of year 11 I think ) - there was a sort of temptation to stop then and take the double award with A*A* - however in the end it was only those who were not doing so well who stopped (or retook bits) - the others went on to take the last 3 modules.

This was one discussion:

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... 56&t=16794" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

and another:


http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... =56&t=1163" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

At my DD school the Double Science option is reserved for the bottom half of the bottom set. The school still manages to get very good results in the Triple Science (60-70% AA*) rather than sticking to the Double Science option.

I would have thought unless your child has already ruled out Science in 6th form and beyond the Triple Science has to be the option.